Day 6: "Monster Arrival"

Afternoon: 12:00noon - Evening

[ IRL Timeframe: November 13th - ~~November 20th~~ December 4th, 2019 ]

Following the events of the morning, with the Wizard and Protector locked in a heated duel, Gyre has paved forward with his plan to gather all the heroes to show them something. Be proud of him, he texted EVERYONE!

The fight between the two powerful entities continues, they won’t be joining anyone just yet. Sxicq, meanwhile, is… somewhere. No one really kept tabs on them, even social media has lost sight of them.

Monster Arrival: Far Haven: No one! Six is preparing to “arrive” in the evening.

The Weather
Clear with a few clouds.
52°F / 11°C
Bring your heater, the chill continues!

Prompts:

12:30pm Mounain, General Post:

I.
Gyre arrives early to the main hiking trail at the base of the mountain. There’s a big sign advertising where it starts, and he sits against one of the legs of the sign. His legs are neatly folded, his arms crossed over his chest. As people begin to arrive, he greets each of them, standing after a second or third has arrived.

Once they’re all gathered, he raises a hand to get everyone’s attention. “Is this everyone?” he asks, clearly counting heads. A flicker of angst crosses his face as he realizes how much smaller they look without Rory and Web and Gail. As he counts, he realizes Zafika and Joanna are missing as well. He wasn’t able to talk to either of them, so he supposes he’s not surprised, but there is a little bubbling concern in his chest. He’ll have to address it later.

He waves at the lot of them once he’s done counting, gesturing for them to follow, “We’re going to the top. I’m going to move quickly so we can get back down before dark. If you need help, ask me. Rely on each other,” is all he says before he turns and heads up the trail.

The ground is worn enough to make the climb relatively easy, but it’s still climbing a mountain. How is everyone taking it? It’s a long trip. There’s time to catch up now that they’re all together again.

II.
This is the top of the mountain. When the heroes arrive, they’ll find Five and Ten seated at a small foldable table playing cards. Five is wearing jeans and a black hoodie with a computer error screen printed on it. She looks at the group of heroes arriving, giving a small wave once she’s seen some familiar faces-- but she immediately moves to hide behind Ten when she sees Luka.

Ten, meanwhile, is wearing a shirt with a picture of himself wearing a shirt with a picture of himself wearing a shirt-- you get the idea. How did he pull that off? The shirt is printed with a picture of him here, on the top of the mountain, outside this cliff door. Did he plan for this? He gives a wave at the group, greeting them with a Microsoft Sam voiced phone message:

“All around me are familiar faces. Ha ha, hello.”

Did he just reference a song? He definitely did. That was definitely “Mad World” by Jary Gules.

12:30pm Onward: Mountain, The Mountain Cave Entrance:

When the heroes decide to descend into the cavern, what they’ll find is a strangely winding corridor that’s barely lit at all. The ceiling is rarely higher than six feet, sometimes shrinking down to four feet and even three feet near the bottom, and most of its length is only wide enough for two people to fit through. The floor is slick with water, the slope of it acting as the perfect place for water to drain into from above. This means the descent is cramped, dark, and slightly slippery.

Good luck, heroes.

The corridor suddenly opens up at the bottom into a wide-open cavern, the walls spreading out too far in every direction and disappearing into the darkness of the cavern. The walkway into the space narrows as it crosses over a massive pit that surrounds a central circular platform. There aren’t any other walkways leading to the middle.

The circular platform in the center has twenty-seven metal rings that make up the floor, smaller ones in the middle surrounded by one massive ring around the outside. It'd take a lot of counting to see the 27 rings but, believe me, they're there. What the heroes will be able to spot, though, is that a few of the rings on the floor are rotating very, very slowly. It would be easy to miss, but once noticed it’s clear that there are exactly ten rings moving and seventeen that are not.

Surrounding the center platform are twenty-seven raised platforms in a big circle around the center. Floating above four in a row are bright yellow blobs with one, two, and three eyes respectively. The fourth and fifth have the slain bodies of Four and Five. Four is wearing the game show garb they’d worn on the day of their games. Five is wearing a set of heavy black robes, not the assassin garb she’d worn on her day. The other side has five occupied platforms each with knights floating in them. Web, with Aqrisqi floating above them. Rory, with Sefaq floating above her. Gail, with Giqra floating above him. Joanna, with Fius floating above her. Zafika, with Muraj floating above them.

Wait. When were Joanna and Zafika defeated? Both of them have a single red mark above where their hearts are like they’d each been stabbed with a blade.

Five and Ten have followed everyone down to this room, looks like they’ll be able to answer questions… maybe? But everyone knows that neither the Wizard nor the Protector will be here, they’re still fighting up on the island’s beach.

Procedure:

Reply to the appropriate toplevel comments for events below. Indicate if a post is a private conversation with "Private" in the subject otherwise all threads should be open to interaction with others. Plan OOCly how you'd like to toss everyone around.

Activity Check: November 2019

[ IRL Timeframe: November 1st - November 31st, 2019 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Careful, now." Garrot's voice is deep and calm, playful tone almost like an encouraging parent. He's glad he decided to keep an eye on Haizea on the way up! In fact, his heavy footfalls show he's moved quickly and confidently past her, whirling around only once he's straight in front of half-tripped form. No gloating, no jokes, just a hand coming from someone who clearly has a much better grasp of the trail.

"I thought you liked the sand." There it is. There's the barb. He's still calm, almost gentle as he says it though. At least he's not being an ass.

"I do like the sand, usually just where it's meant to be, out by the ocean. Didn't realize there'd be so much up on a mountain. I shoulda worn different boots," she says lightly and shrugs, refusing to get flustered at his barb.

But then she pauses, and cocks her head to the side as she looks at him, giving him a quick glance up and down. He looks alright, but...

"Heard you ended up in the hospital yesterday. You sure you ought to be out here so soon?" Her tone is fairly casual, but the way she purses her lips betrays her concern.

"I'm fine." The words are pointed, as if it's the only thing anyone's asked him all day. He's the doctor, he's the one that should be concerned about everyone else! But he smirks once the tense moment passes, knowing he needs to make light of the situation. "Doctors said I'm just as hearty and virile as always and my man double-checked the scans. I just had to sleep it off."

That's a light way of putting spent most of a day in a magic coma, Garrot. So instead, he'll flip things around and try to lighten the mood before she can get a word in edgewise.

"You know sand is just tiny rocks, right? It's, like, everywhere." He sighs and just wiggles his hand as a standing offer to help stabilize her. "Seriously, you'll find sand way inland in Koskenkorva. Maybe I'll show you some when you visit?" Garrot snorts back a laugh at the notion of adding sand-hunting to Haizea's international itinerary. At least he's having fun with it all?

Garrot, you're not getting off that easy!

"Oh you're fine alright, but are you well? Seems like you oughta take it easy just in case. Don't worry," she says, and claps him on the shoulder (Arm? His shoulder might be too high for her to reach), before continuing, "I'm sure you'll be ready for a fight soon. We tend to bounce back pretty fast, huh?" She gestures at the remains of the scar on her head from the second day. "One of these days we'll both be in good shape for a fight at the same time, I bet..." She trails off, leaving things unsaid for now, before finally humoring his subject change.

"As for sand, well, I know about deserts and such. Whole plains full of sand, right? Just seems better for it to be by the ocean," she shrugs. "I'd like to see whatever you got in Kosekenkorva, though."

Haizea wants him to be hale and hearty and well so they can get that fight. Yeah, that makes sense. They were really excited for that. But it's not like climbing a mountain again is gonna hurt him, unless the whole thing blows up this time, and-

Garrot just blinks before Haizea's voice trails off for a moment. Is this how he is with people?! If so, it's so damn annoying, let him live!

"We're getting put in life-or-death situations against magical bullshit every day, none of us should be well." The words are scoffed out, barbed cynicism bubbling up from the relentless concern. If this was casual, soldier-style confrontation then that'd be one thing, but everything changes from one day to the next. There's no preparing or predicting or anything.

"I feel fine. Well enough." It's hard to articulate to someone who isn't a highly trained medical professional that his brain feels kind of like it did a hard reset while he was out. Aside from a little fatigue, occasional headaches, and the endless pestering and bullshit from family and friends pissing him off and distracting him from saving the world, he's pretty good. No worse than a killer hangover from his younger days.

But then, Garrot sighs. Time to deflect and avoid. This won't help him be his best.

"We've actually got one or two little deserts up there." He's smiling, warm and friendly and as if those concerns were never expressed. "We can make it a pit stop on the way up to that cabin, if you want."

Haizea shrugs at all that. She'll lay off for now, but you best believe she'll be keeping an eye on you. "Well, at any rate, take care of yourself. We'd all best try and stay in good shape, right?"

When he brings up the cabin trip, she quirks a bit of a smile. "This is soundin' more and more like a whole Kosenkova tour. How long you intendin' to keep me from home, G?"

Garrot shrugs back, because he's been spending enough time harping on health and wellness to the others that uh, yeah, he gets it. This probably is how he is with people. Ew. But she changes the subject, and it's a great distraction from dwelling on how he interacts with people. Score!

"As long as you wanna stay, Z." He smirks back, even cheekily quirking an eyebrow. "Who knows? Maybe you'll never wanna leave, and we'll..." Garrot raises a hand between them, two fingers moving like a person walking, except the motions are way too delicate and flirtatious because he's doing that thing again. "Explore every intimate little nook and cranny..."

But then his body lurches forward a bit, he's grinning, and then he's loudly guffawing at his own absurd jokery. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, there's a lot of cold, desolate space up there. You'd get bored of the wilderness in a week, tops." Garrot's mostly saying that because he can only stand being in the middle of nowhere for a week, tops.

It's exactly how he is are!! He's lucky Haizea is taking it easy on him.

She enjoys his flirting and lets out a bit of a chuckle along with him. "It'll be nice to play hooky for a while up there, but I'm bettin' I'll have a lot of work to catch up on after this. Probably won't be able to get away for long. So we better make it count, right?"

She tilts her head to the side and grins up at him. "If the wilderness is borin', then we'd best keep each other proper occupied."

Garrot leans back a bit, bending his arms to hold the back of his head with his hands. See? He's relaxed, he's fine! He wouldn't be relaxing if he wasn't fine, right?

"The point of hooky's to take a break, you can't worry about work. Just delegate to someone!" Sometimes when Garrot goes on vacation, he breaks his phone, buys a new one, and changes the number. His colleagues know to contact his oldest daughter if something goes really wrong. "Hell, maybe once you're world-famous you can bring your people with you and have a huge workplace snowball fight." He starts grinning, eager to bend the rules when possible. "It's like teambuilding or something."

If Zea hasn't gone that far north, she probably hasn't had a snowball fight. Another thing on the list...

Haizea crooks a smile at the idea of taking her whole gang on vacation. Would that even be possible? No, almost certainly not. Too much of the city depends on the various enterprises she's got her criminal hands on, directly or otherwise.

"That'd be nice," she finally says, noncomittal. "But being famous is only gonna make life harder for me. Probably gettin' away for a bit on my own will be difficult enough, let alone bringin' everyone else with me," she sighs, a bit pensive. This lifestyle has its drawbacks.

"So I guess you're stuck with just me alone!" she finally finishes, and elbows at his side to lighten things up.

"Ugh, fine, if you have to get me alone..." His tone is playful and sarcastic, disregarding his track record of planning out solo Koskenkorvan outings for the two of them. "But what I don't get is if your job is so simple, why's it so hard for you to get a vacation?" Sure, she said there was more secrecy to her work than she's outwardly stated, but he's plenty busy and he gets vacations.

"Unless..." He quirks an eyebrow, smirking like the cat that ate the canary. "...you're just so irreplacable at your simple job?" Garrot's applying some rude and intrusive pressure, using what he knows about their pasts in the ring. They've fought together, drank together, flirted up a storm... maybe that's worth some truth? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and he's a very curious Monkey Knight.

"Hmm..." she intones, buying a bit of time to think. She likes Garrot, and she takes no joy in keeping secrets. Were it just for her own sake, she'd be far more willing to level with him. But the safety of not just her kids, but her entire criminal enterprise lies in secrecy.

At the same time, Garrot knows about her past in the fighting ring. He knows she's skirted the law before. Perhaps she can let him in on a little of her situation without giving away too much.

"Just between you and me... My job ain't so simple. Ain't so legal either," she says, with a quick look at Garrot to gauge his reaction, before continuing. "A lot of folks rely on me, and a lot of other folks rely on them. Takin' me out the equation is rough enough, I'm really just hopin' things can stay together as long as I'm stuck out here on this island.

"Would be nice to get a real vacation, but I'm bettin' there's gonna be a lot to clean up if I make it back," she finishes with a shrug.

Illegal work? After Haizea got her start in the Faridan fighting pits and found her way to some kind of security gig? It's not exactly surprising or hard to process- Zafika's an assassin after all. And hell, depending on some of Garrot's choices, he could've ended up in a similar position. So his reaction is... minimal. A slight raise of the eyebrows at the admission, but those eyebrows begin to rise bit by bit as the Dragon Knight describes what sounds like a chain of command.

"We're more similar than I thought; so many people need us..." Garrot's hands go on his hips, exuding towering confidence over his ally. "But you don't got a second-in-command you trust?" Garrot's question is rhetorical, and he doesn't even wait for it to register. "I do. Clever, organized, passionate..." The eyebrows lower and he begins to smirk, eager to flex on someone whose power he was underestimating. "Good leadership is knowing when to let others lead, you know. Making sure they're ready."

Suffice to say, he's mostly unfazed by the notion that the Unkillable Zia ever stopped climbing, in the ring or out. In those sorts of circles, not dying is kind of a valuable skill.

Garrot's reaction is as she'd hoped, and she relaxes a bit.

"I got someone too, and I'd trust him with my life, he's like my brother. But he's... better with some responsibilities than with others," she finishes with a slight frown. Reggie had been in her crew since they were kids, and he was loyal to a fault, great with her kids, and a fantastic fighter. But he never had the same mind for innovation as she did. If Reggie had been in charge, the gang never would have grown past lifting wallets and beating up pimps.

"He can keep all my plates spinnin' for a while so long as I gotta be out here," she says, gesturing to the island at large, "but too long and those plates will start fallin'."

Haizea's words prompt a soft, wistful sigh from Garrot. He'd always wanted siblings but his mother always refused and launched into gripes about little teeth and claws and sensitive skin. So he's pretty jealous; he's even pouting for a second! But it passes, and his eyes light up along with a mischievous little grin.

"I've been goin' about this, about you, all wrong." He chuckles, deep with bass and threatening to reach into his belly. "You shouldn't visit me, I should visit you!" The laugh erupts for a moment, theatrical and almost villainous before he chokes it back, like this was all some kind of joke.

"You and I can have some quality time together while I teach your people about management and delegation." Garrot chuckles again, containing his mirth into a cheeky little smirk. His eyes are still bright and wide, too, is he genuinely excited by this? "Consider me a... corporate consultant, if you want."

That's one way to keep in touch with the others.

When life doesn't give you siblings, you go out and find your own. Or at least, that's what Haizea did. Reggie is the only one that she has regular contact with though, the rest all left the criminal life behind them and went off to be productive members of society. Haizea is so proud of them.

"Visit me?" Haizea says in surprise, before laughing as well. "I figured Farida would be old news to you! Didn't get your fill back when we were both fightin' underground?"

At his corporate consultant suggestion though, Haizea gets a bit serious. "That could actually work. My people are a bit, ah... let's say self taught?" Which was by design, Haizea always encouraged the members of her gang that showed real potential to make it on the right side of the law to get an education and get out of the life.

"So if you could spare some time, I'm sure you'd be right busy. Both with the folks that rely on me, and with me," she says with a wink.

"Z, I travel all over the world for my job, I'm in Farida a few times a year." While he's had his fill of hot summers' days and sand castles building in his hair, he doesn't really mind Farida... he just prefers the cold of Koskenkorva. "Plus after all this, I can do pretty much whatever I want." The perks of saving the world and also being super privileged, honestly.

"But I can be tough." Now he's pretty serious, too. "It's not my fault if you and yours can't cut it 'cause you're self-taught." There's a condescending little smirk from the man who knows much and can do even more. "If all of you end up on your knees, begging for mercy, it'll cost you. I won't go easy on you just 'cause I like you."

Seriously, cleaning up a criminal enterprise staffed by vaguely-professionals sounds like a trip. But he also might be implying he could make his way through her organization. Gotta keep things interesting.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 6: "Monster Arrival"

Afternoon: 12:00noon - Evening

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

Activity Check: November 2019

I

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject